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John McCain is fighting for loaded guns in national parks, and the dispute is holding up a bill that would extend wilderness protection and establish the Abraham National Wilderness area in Illinois and the Niagara Falls Heritage Area in upstate New York. Gun restrictions in national parks were put in place by Reagan’s Secretary of the Interior James Watt. Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is sponsoring the bill which would overturn that, and his spokesman, Don Tatro, is worried that unless the amendement passes, your family will be raped.

Thirty-nine Republicans and eight Democrats signed the letter seeking to overturn the regulations, which were approved in the early 1980s by then-Interior Secretary James Watt.

Coburn’s amendment would take that a step further and write into law a requirement that guns cannot be restricted in national parks. “Unloaded and disassembled guns locked in your trunk are of no use when a rapist is attacking your family,” Tatro said.

But a coalition of park rangers and park service retirees say the amendment could jeopardize public safety and make it more difficult to stop poaching.

“There is simply no legitimate or substantive reason for a thoughtful sportsman or gun owner to carry a loaded gun in a national park unless that park permits hunting,” the groups said in a statement.